2009 was the first year for One Money Design and the beginning of blogging for me.  I always new I wanted to operate my own website and that was my primary goal early in 2009.  I’m happy I can now say that is accomplished!  But as I learned more, there were many goals associated with blogging I established along the way.

Recap of 2009

• Started blogging, built and launched One Money Design.  Although, One Money Design went live early in the year, it didn’t evolve into a fully committed blog until June.
• Published 159 articles and have 290 comments.
• Over 300 followers on Twitter who can now follow my tweets and re-tweets.
• Over 70 people subscribed to One Money Design posts by email or RSS feed.
• Created a One Money Design Facebook page and have 29 fans.
• Created the One Money Design YouTube channel and have created 3 short videos.
• Started using Stumble Upon to record my favorite websites and articles for followers.  I think this is important so that others can see what content I’m reading.
• Created a weekly post schedule and have stayed committed to posting Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday of each week.
• Became a staff writer for Bible Money Matters and continue to post there once per week.
• I was honored to provide interviews at Green Panda Treehouse and PT Money.

2010 goals

My initial goal was to open up the year with a professional design and new logo.  I’m pleased I can say this is now accomplished!  Just this past weekend, I was able to bring up a new design for the website.  I plan to publish a special announcement post soon, so stay tuned.

I plan to also open up the year with a new Bible and money series.  This week, I’m going to publish an announcement about a new 10 week series on the Bible and Money.  If you’re a regular reader, you know that I believe true financial freedom or financial peace is in God’s plan or design for our money.

I plan to issue a quarterly report to provide more in depth content about 4 different areas of personal finance.  I plan to offer these free reports to subscribers and issue them at the end of each calendar quarter.

Numbers, numbers and more numbers: I’m going to try not to overly concern myself with numbers this year and just focus on blogging and helping people get on the road to true financial freedom.  This is easier said than done because we all like to get excited about growth, but I’m in this for the long road.

I’ll continue to post 3 times per week based on my schedule, but honestly, I would love to increase this number.  So, I’m not going to quite commit yet, but if I’m feeling a burst of creativity, or there is important information that I think should be shared (I’ll play reporter from time to time), I’ll take the liberty to post on a non scheduled day.

Identify a staff writer for One Money Design.  I will be looking for a staff writer this year to help contribute valuable content here at One Money Design and help me take it to the next level.  This objective should also help increase the posting frequency each week.  If you have any ideas or leads, please let me know.

Updated – I’ve thought of a few more things since writing this post!

I recently purchased the eBook 31 Days to a Build a Better Blog by Darren Rowse at Problogger.com.  This looks to be a book packed with great ideas for improving your blog.  It’ll probably take me 31 weeks to complete it , but nevertheless, it’s my goal to make it through the book and the action items this year.

I plan to do some house cleaning for my about page and make it easier to read as well as provide some more content there for readers.  Stay tuned!

At some point this year, I’d like to start offering a monthly giveaway.  I need to do a little more planning in this area, but I think it will be a great way to provide people a valuable personal finance resource.  I enjoyed the Money Map giveaway I recently held and all the receipients were appreciative of this great gift.  I hope to give a resource away that will help someone over their financial hump or just help them move along further on their journey.

To wrap up, this is a perfect opportunity to thank the visitors and readers here at One Money Design.  Thanks for making this year a lot of fun and I hope that you are finding your journey a bit easier.  I’d also like to thank all the bloggers I’ve connected with this year.  You have taught me a lot and continue to amaze me with your talents.

If you’re a regular reader, visitor, or blogger, what do you think about these objectives?  Would you change or add anything?